Have You Heard?
by NerdGirl95
Summary: "Have you heard? Weasley can barely read or write!" Louis has spent years working hard to make sure no one knew how hard he had to work. But now his secret is out, and he's left to face the Hogwarts rumour mill. But family doesn't give up on their own, and James has a plan. Written for QLFC Season 6 Round 8


**Written for the QLFC Season 6 Round 8. Chaser 1: Write about someone falling prey to rumours**

 **Optional prompts: 4. (emotion) frustration; 5. (dialogue) "I've waited this long, yet suddenly now I'm impatient"; 14 (character) Louis Weasley**

If Louis Weasley ever wrote a list of all the places he would expect to find himself on a sunny Saturday, he didn't think the Library would even make the list. And of all the people to be there with - well, James would be more likely found on a list of people who would never set foot in this particular location. And yet here he was, sitting in a dark corner at the back of the Library with James, planning to be there all day.

Looking back, this day had probably been coming ever since he first arrived at Hogwarts five years ago. But he'd been able to get by, to ignore all the challenges, until this year. Until other kids had begun to notice.

* * *

 **Three months prior**

"Oi Weasley, nice reading"

"Weasley, thanks for giving us a totally useless lesson"

"Good luck on your OWLs Weasley - or should I say _WOLs"_

It wasn't his fault, it really wasn't. He hadn't asked to read the chapter out loud in class. And why couldn't the teacher have just told him what chapter it was, instead of the page? Chapters were much harder to mix up; there were less numbers to worry about. But no, he'd been asked to read from page 345, and of course he had turned to 534. And why oh why hadn't anyone corrected him?! He knew that James and Fred would have, but they were both in the Hospital Wing after a prank gone wrong. And so now the whole class new that he, Louis Weasley, mixed up numbers. And more than that, that he couldn't read properly. That he skipped words, and somehow whole lines, and got one word mixed up with another.

And now the whole school would know that Louis Weasley was stupid.

* * *

It all started when he was very little. All of his cousins learnt to read really early, but he just couldn't. It wasn't that he didn't know the words - he had a larger vocabulary than any of his cousins did at that age. But he just couldn't understand them when they were written down. Every time he finally learnt what a word looked like, he'd have forgotten it by the next day. Eventually he became so frustrated that he just gave up altogether. He was just dumb, and nothing was going to change that.

Until his desperate parents took him to Aunt Audrey, who was a muggle teacher. And after one hour with him, she knew exactly what was causing his difficulties. Louis Weasley had dyslexia. He wasn't stupid, she told him, his brain just didn't like words and numbers when they were written down. But they could help his brain to understand them a bit better, as long as he was willing to work hard.

And work hard he did. He spent hours with Uncle Percy, painstakingly going through the same simple books over and over, until finally he could proudly tell the family that he had read a whole book _by himself_. Aunt Hermione taught him fun tricks to use to remember how to spell things, and his father had similar tricks for numbers. And so it was that by the time he received his acceptance letter to Hogwarts, no one except his family could tell just how hard he worked.

* * *

"Have you heard? Weasley can barely read or write!"

"What? Which one?"

"Louis. Apparently he was called on to read in class, and not only did he get the wrong page, he couldn't even read the right words"

"But he's a fifth year! Surely he can't be that bad."

"He's a Weasley, they would never dare to kick him out. They've probably been changing his marks to get him through."

* * *

"Have you heard? Louis Weasley has failed every assignment he's ever done!"

"That's impossible, they'd never let him stay."

"His family probably bribed McGonagall to change his marks. But Flint found his record the other day. He doesn't deserve to be here."

"They can't let him stay if he fails his OWLs."

"They'll find a way, he's a Weasley."

* * *

"Have you heard? If Louis Weasley doesn't pass all his OWLs they're kicking him out of school!"

"Can they do that?"

"Well, we can't have an idiot ruining the school's reputation can we?"

"What would he do?"

"Who cares. Probably just drain his family's resources for the rest of his life."

* * *

Surprisingly it took multiple weeks for the rumours to get back to Louis himself, but when they did he very nearly packed his trunk and left straight away. The only reason he didn't was that he was promptly pinned to his bed by James and Fred.

"Honestly boys, what's the point? They're all right, I am going to fail all of my OWLs. and it doesn't matter what my last name is, they won't let me keep going."

"You are not going to fail! And besides, they won't kick you out; at worst they will make you repeat."

"Fred, we all know that another year won't make any difference I know the work, I can do the spells. I just can't get through the readings, or make my words come out right."

"Well, you're not going to fail. I won't let you." And there was such a determined look in James' eyes that Louis almost believed him.

* * *

And that was how he ended up here, for the twentieth day in a row, painstakingly going through every reading and every possible exam question. James had even created a study schedule for them, and had convinced the Professors to give him not only past papers, but what would be looked for in order to achieve different marks.

If Louis hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he never would have believed it.

* * *

 **Two months later**

"Come on Louis, open the letter!"

"I-I can't. You go first."

"Louis, I opened mine yesterday, when it came. So did Fred. Please Louis, just open the bloody letter. I've waited this long to know how you went, now I'm just impatient."

"Yeah well, your future doesn't depend on this letter James. Mine does."

"Oh give it here….Louis….you need to see this."

"I knew it! I knew I would fail….wait, I didn't fail. How did I not fail?"

"Because you are smart, and a hard worker. I told you you could do it! Look, you even got an O in Care of Magical Creatures!"

"Thanks James."

"Anytime mate. Anytime."


End file.
